Postage metering systems generate encrypted information that is printed on a mail piece as part of an indicium evidencing postage payment. The encrypted information includes a postage value for the mail piece combined with other postal data that relate to the mail piece and the postage meter printing the indicium. The encrypted information authenticates and protects the integrity of the information, including the postage value, imprinted on the mail piece for later verification of postage payment. Since the indicium incorporates the encrypted information relating to the evidencing of postage payment, altering the printed information in an indicium is detectable by standard verification procedures.
Conventional postage printing systems utilize pre-paid accounts in which funds are stored in a register for use to generate and print postage. Such funds are stored in a secure device, known as a postal security device (PSD). A PSD is a secure processor-based accounting device that dispenses and accounts for postal value stored therein. The PSD generates indicia for printing on mail pieces, utilizing the funds stored therein. The United States Postal Service (“USPS”) has approved personal computer (PC) postage metering systems as part of the USPS Information-Based Indicia Program (“IBIP”). One type of system that supports PC postage metering systems utilizes a PSD that is coupled to a server at a data center that is remote from the PC and accessible through the Internet. The PC runs application software or a web browser for requesting postage indicia from the server located at the data center. All functions required for generating an indicium are performed by the PSD coupled to the server, and the results are returned to the PC where the indicium can be printed on a mail piece or label.
Each PSD is initialized for and thus dedicated to only a single customer (also referred to as a client). Thus, to handle multiple customers, it is necessary to provide multiple PSD's to handle transaction requests from each respective customer. Thus, a server can have multiple PSD's coupled to it such that each PSD can handle a different transaction simultaneously. When a customer requests a postage indicium, the request is sent to the PSD designated for that customer for processing of the transaction, and the results returned to the PC being used by the customer.
In some markets, each PSD is dedicated to only a single customer. Thus, as new customers are added, it requires additional PSDs, one for each of the new customers. Each server can only support a limited number of PSDs, thus it is also necessary to add additional servers to handle the increase in customers. A load balancer distributes the requests for postage among the multiple servers based on a server selection criteria configured in the load balancer. For those markets in which a PSD is dedicated to only a single customer, each server is required to have a PSD that is dedicated to each respective customer (one for each and every customer), as the load balancer has no knowledge of which server houses the PSD for the customer making the request. Thus, regardless of the server that receives the request from the load balancer for postage from that customer, there is a PSD dedicated to that customer coupled to the server to process the request.
Having multiple PSDs for each customer, one coupled to each server, creates several problems. From a system point of view, needing to place a customer specific PSD in every server in the environment limits the number of customers that can be supported in the environment. This also makes the system unnecessarily large and complicated, especially if there are numerous customers that are low volume mailers and do not use the system frequently. From the customer point of view, funds must be placed in each PSD that is installed for that customer. Thus, for example, if a customer normally spends $50 per day in postage, each PSD that is installed for the customer must have $50 in its registers for postage. For a 6 server environment, for example, this would require the customer to put a total of $300 in postage into the PSDs, $50 in each PSD. Even though the customer may only spend $50 a day, there is no control over which PSD will actually be utilized throughout the day. Thus, it is possible that only one of the six PSDs for that customer will be used for the entire $50, or more than one PSD may be used over the course of the day. Each of these drawbacks leads to problems with the system and problems with customer acceptance.